Membership rewards for plane tickets

[kalamazoo]

We are looking to redeem some reward points for plane tickets. The catch is that the airline we want to fly with is not one of the airlines that participate in this reward program. They are, however, partners with a partner of an airline that does participate - that means we would have to transfer miles from one airline to another 3 times before getting to the airline we want. Has anyone done anything like this before? Is it possible, or if not impossible then impossibly difficult? If we can swing this it will save us hundreds of dollars and possible even be a deciding factor on whether we actually make the trip at all.

TIA

 

[teriwagner46]

Kalamazoo -

You didm't mention if the membership rewards are from a credit card but most of the time you only need to have a frequent flyer account with one of the airlines to transfer the points. The only downfall with this is that seats are kinda limited. You might want to check into redeeming points for travel certificates if they are available. This way you can redeem points for any regularly scheduled flight with that airline. My husband and I just redeemed our Membership points on our American Express amd were able purchase 4 round trip tickets at the time and date we wanted. This was on Sun Country Airlines. We were responsible for only the tax which meant we paid only $30.00 total for all four tickets! Not bad for round trip tickets!

I would definitely keep investigating this. You may have to be flexible in which airline you use.

Good Luck!

 

[NancyIL]

Is the airline you want to fly on American? You can still combine American and USAirways miles until some time in August. If that's the case, you only need to move the points once, and then call American and have them take the miles out of your USAirways account. (That's
if American and USAirways were the airlines you were referring to.)

 

[kalamazoo]

Thanks for your input so far. I guess I should have been a little less mysterious. The reward points I have are with Amex and the airline I want to fly is Air Canada (it's the only one that flies direct, non-stop). I saw that you can get Delta Skymiles with Amex points and that Delta is partners with United who is partners with Air Canada (kind of like the Kevin Bacon game, isn't it?).

Unfortunately, there are no travel certificates for Air Canada, though it is good to know about these for future reference.

Anyway, I will investigate a little further. Dh talked to someone at Air Canada and they said no-can-do but I don't know a)if Air Canada was the right place to start, and b) how dh phrased the question, so I guess we'll just have to call all the involved parties before giving up.

 

[Beverly Lynn]

its a royal pain in the dupa (to say the least) but if there are seats to be had then try it. but you will probably run into many tangles and it will be frustrating as all get out. isn't there any other carrier thats in the program you are wanting to use that has a schedule to fit your wants?

 

[kalamazoo]

Well, at least you are urging me to try, that's some encouragement anyway.

There are several airlines that we can use who are part of the rewards program just that none of them fly direct, non-stop and the first leg on all of them is on some type of regional jet. To do this adds 3 hours to the trip and the thought of the extra time added plus
hauling all our carry-on stuff + car seat and 2 children to catch a connecting flight makes me willing to try for the direct flight.

It's funny, you would think that, having a choice of departure from 2 major cities, you would be able to get what you want no problem.

I asked dh what he said to Air Canada and all he asked was if we could use Amex reward points (Canadian used to be part of the program before they merged with Air Canada), so no wonder they said no.

Oh well, I'll give it a shot in a week or so (going to be really busy at work next week and don't think there'll be time for this until the week after).

Thanks again for all your input.